


Firstmate

by Bj_Freeplay



Category: One Piece
Genre: Firstmate zoro, Gen, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21790126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bj_Freeplay/pseuds/Bj_Freeplay
Summary: There was something different about him? Not bad, just different... as if time weighed down those shoulders that always screamed they were ready to take on the world. Sometimes he could forget the change, and other times Zoro felt a weight collapse on his legs and break all expectations.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Nami, Monkey D. Luffy & Roronoa Zoro, Nami & Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	1. Time changes a person

It wasn't that they hadn't connected when seeing one another again, after all the kid had been jumping and laughing and goofing like he always had when they finally set sail... but he could feel that there was something different now. Some naivety lost, a weirdly lengthy gab that wasn't there before blocking what should be. It was frustrating...

And then when seeing all the new displays of power gained, that freshly strengthened over protectiveness for even the most powerful on the crew. A kid, yet no longer a child... a boy that could sit and watch as he gently sifted his feet in the water so his crew could enjoy some swimming... well,

It was good. 

It was different. 

It was... necessary. Why did it have to be necessary?

Zoro couldn't ease the tension from his shoulders, or stop thinking about his failure. He needed to understand, needed to learn again. It wasn't this hard the first time. Something broke through his thoughts and bounced on his thighs as someone fell onto his lap. Of course there was no need to open his eye to know who it was, and considering this, he was positive that the weight would be lifted not too soon. That was how it always was. 

But then nothing happened... and one minute passed, and then two. The deck got silenter and silenter as the crew filtered inside to shelter themselves from the advancing night air. Normally his captain would be third inside to play black jack in the aquarium with sanji and Robin, right before Nami, Brook, and Franky called themselves in. It was routine, the expectation... but then ten minutes went by and all he did was squirm lightly in the swordsman's lap. 

Zoro didn't understand.

He cracked his eye open and looked at the untamed hair resting uneasily before his face. He faced away from the swordsman toward the other end of the deck. No... he looked passed the deck. The sky was on fire. Bright oranges, yellows, and reds were alight beside the bright white sun as it drifted slowly below the horizon. Even the waves splashed with the remnants of flickering flame dancing across its reflection. The day's blue was gone, leaving just the impending dark and the bright colors mixing between the transition. 

Luffy leaned back against his first mate and grinned at the view. A small shift that had been so ridged and cold in his heart for the last two years paused and Zoro's eye softened. 

Time passed and Luffy turned to look into his friend's eyes. They were determined and sad, yet forgiving and so so... proud... There was no grin, no laughter, just a smile. A telling smile that was different from how he looked at the waves. It was different from how Luffy looked at the burning sky so reminiscent of what should have been yet wasn't. He wasn't looking at the memory, and Zoro suddenly understood. 

*of course.* he said back into his captains eyes. 

And Luffy grinned ear to ear, happy to turn back and watch the sunset once again. 

When the sky went from velvet, to scarlet, and then finally to a deep peaceful purple, Luffy jumped up and headed for the door with a small skip in his step. When the door opened the boy shouted brightly and ran down the hall towards the stair well. He didn't turn around. 

"Call me in! Sanji Sanji Sanji!! Can we have some cocoa and meat?! Please?!..." his voice got softer as he danced further away. 

Zoro hefted himself off the ledge and headed towards the open door. He looked at the now black waves and sparkling sky one more time and smiled slightly. He understood. 

It was different, they both were. That was okay. There was nothing to forgive and even if the colors changed it'd still be the same. They'd still be the captain and his swordsman. Stronger and stronger... keeping forward and never back, not when Zoro was the one who had it secured. So, the door clicking closed behind him, Zoro did what he always did and followed his captain down stairs. After all, it was Brook's turn for look out and if Luffy wasn't going to get him up there, well, he guessed that meant it was Zoro's job. 

Firstmate of the pirate king doesn't need to be anything less.


	2. Cirque de freak

These two are freaks! Was Nami's second thought (and most frequent behind 'these guys are idiots') after combining their two small ships. 

They don't know where they're going! Neither have any idea how to navigate the ocean even if they DID have a logical location! And to add insult to injury they ACTUALLY believe they'll last like THIS on the grand line! She didn't even want to think about how they'd all met either. You don't just walk away from your building being blown up, and it's impossible to just jump back from being tossed through a two story... "I mean, who fights a lion for dogfood?!"

Complete and utter FREAKS. 

When the trip began she avoided them like the plague "I can't get attached," she had known. And even when the crew began to expand and more weirdos joined up it was those two that'd never failed to throw her through a loop. 

They just didn't make any sense!

Their relationship shouldn't fit so perfectly, you don't just trust people the way these two monsters (who are NOTHING alike) do.

Yet... it worked. 

They saved her island, those two and Usopp with that blondie from the restaurant. None of them questioning why Luffy made them wait for her permission first...

They followed Luffy's command and Zoro made sure people knew the captain's word was law at the right moments. They were a team that could be as confusingly fluid as possible. One slept all day and the other drove you insane all day. It didn't seem to match, but then suddenly push came to shove and they were the perfect wall to barricade their crew behind. Those two could change so drastically before you blinked and realized that there was a difference. 

It shouldn't be possible, but they just knew each other. If telepathy existed then those two would be the masters of it. 

So maybe that was why she sat next to Zoro three days before the trip up reverse mountain to ask,

"How do you do it?"

He had opened one eye lazily to look at her in confusion, "Do what?"

"Luffy?!"

His bewildered look made her re-evaluate for a second, "Uh, how do you two connect so easily?"

For a second she thought he'd just keep staring, but then he responded with something worse, "Well... He's Luffy."

And that was it. There was really nothing else to it. Nami could tell that he wouldn't give an answer better than that when he'd once again closed his eye. 

So she learned slowly to just accept it and soon depend on it. 

Zoro might have a broken internal compass, but his Luffy compass was never wrong. If the idiot went missing and Luffy wasn't worried, then Nami would just wait annoyed at one of her boys being so incompetent. She never needed to worry about him vanishing, not if Luffy was on the same island. One way or another they'd find each other and trash the enemy. 

It became a fact of life. 

A law of nature. 

Where Luffy goes Zoro will follow, and they'd protect the crew with everything they had. 

Once Chopper officially joined she remembered how she had felt at the beginning of the journey. He was so uneasy with the swordsman sitting on the deck seeming to glare at all of the crew like they were his prey. Nami almost felt sympathetic towards the poor guy, but the best way to help was to let him figure out how he interpreted their captain and firstmate on his own. 

And that's how it went for all of them (other than Robin, who has her own set of things to worry about when she got the stamp of disapproval from their swordsman), learning to just live with their ship's weird relationships that seemed to work so perfectly.


End file.
